1 BERNT CARLSSON: THE TARGET ON PAN AM FLIGHT 103? By Patrick Haseldine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Haseldine ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Countdown to Lockerbie 1. On 27 September 1974, the UN Council for Namibia (UNCN) enacts Decree No 1 which prohibits all exploitation of Namibia's natural resources - particularly diamonds and uranium. The Decree provides for the payment of damages to the future government of an independent Namibia. 2. UN Security Council Resolution 435 of 1978 orders apartheid South Africa to withdraw from its illegal occupation of Namibia. 3. On 1 July 1987, Bernt Carlsson is appointed an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and the UN Commissioner for Namibia. Within two weeks of Carlsson's appointment, the UNCN institutes infraction proceedings against the uranium producer URENCO in the Netherlands, and signals similar action against Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. 4. Reagan/Gorbachev summit of June 1988 decides on Namibian independence. The New York Accords are scheduled for signature on 22 December 1988 by US/Soviet client states: South Africa, Cuba and Angola. 5. In July 1988, UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, is invited to address the Development Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels on 20 December 1988. 6. Early in December 1988, Carlsson appears in the Granada TV documentary "Disappearing Diamonds" and criticises De Beers for illegal extraction of Namibia's diamonds (value $18.7 billion at 2009 prices). As a result, De Beers summon him to a meeting in London on 21 2 December 1988. Three days before his departure from New York to Brussels on 19 December 1988, Carlsson cancels his return flight booking from Brussels to New York. Instead, he books himself on British Airways Flight 391 to London for the meeting with De Beers, and on Pan Am Flight 103 from Heathrow to JFK. (This information is derived from Jan-Olof Bengtsson's article in the Swedish newspaper iDAG of 12 March 1990. It has never been published in English. Why?) 7. A 23-strong delegation from South Africa are also booked on Pan Am Flight 103. Their South African Airways flight from Johannesburg is forbidden by the US Comprehensive Anti- Apartheid Act of 1986 from continuing to New York. So Foreign Minister, Pik Botha, Defence Minister, Magnus Malan, Director of Military Intelligence, General Van Tonder, and 20 negotiators have to suffer the indignity of alighting at Heathrow and of taking the US carrier, Pan Am, to JFK. In the event, none of the 23 South Africans travelled on Carlsson's flight. Six are reported to have taken the morning Pan Am Flight 101 to New York, and 17 are understood to have returned by SAA to Johannesburg. (The fact that Pik Botha's delegation were booked on Pan Am Flight 103 was suppressed for six years - until the Reuters news agency reported it on 12 November 1994. Why?) Conclusion No attempt has yet been made to formally investigate the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson. The decision not to investigate was taken by a junior Scottish policeman, Detective Constable John Crawford, on the basis of information supplied to him by "a very helpful lady librarian in Newcastle". Former MEP Michael McGowan has called for urgent action by the UN. He is the 17th signatory of an online petition ( http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BerntCarlsson/ ) which demands a United Nations inquiry into the murder of UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, in the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing 3 References A. UN Council for Namibia Decree No 1 ( http://www.jstor.org/pss/4186138 ). UNCN plans enforcement action ( http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_v22/ai_3752724/?tag=content;col1 ). (Also see "Council for Namibia sues Netherlands over Namibia's natural resources" article below.) B. History of Namibia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Namibia#Negotiations_and_transition ). C. Michael McGowan's invitation to Bernt Carlsson ( http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/opinion/Michael-McGowan-The-best-tribute.5612963.jp ). D. "Finger of suspicion", The Guardian, 7 December 1989 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PatrickHaseldine3B.jpg ). E. Jan-Olof Bengtsson, iDAG, 12 March 1990 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_talk:IDAG(1)12MAR90.jpg ). F. Reuters report, 12 November 1994 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_talk:REUTERS12NOV94.jpg ). G. "The Lockerbie Incident : A Detective's Tale", by John Crawford, 2002 (pages 88/89) ( http://books.google.com/books?id=Nh9_p8RjikQC&pg=PP1&dq=Lockerbie+Incident:+A+Det ective%27s+Tale#v=onepage&q=&f=false ). H. Former MEP calls for urgent inquiry by the UN ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernt_Carlsson#Call_for_urgent_inquiry ). Council for Namibia sues Netherlands over Namibia's natural resources In an unprecedented action, the United Nations Council for Namibia has instituted legal proceedings in the Netherlands against the Dutch uranium enrichment plant Urenco Nederland V.O.F. and its State-controlled managing partner Ultracentrifuge Nederland N.V., as well as the Government of the Netherlands, "to prevent Urenco Nederland V.O.F. from carrying out orders on the basis of purchases of Namibian uranium'. The Council is the legal Administering Authority for the Territory until independence. It is the first time that a United Nations body has sued a Government. 4 Council President Peter D. Zuze of Zambia said the action was "only a first step by the Council in implementing its decision of May 1985 to institute legal proceedings, as one of various options, to safeguard the natural resources of Namibia'. The writ of summons was served on the defendants on 14 July 1987. On 23 July 1987, the Netherlands, in a letter (A/42/414) to the Secretary-General called the action "unprecedented', adding that Netherlands electricity companies did not buy Namibian uranium. Urenco Nederland V.O.F. and Ultracentrifuge Nederland N.V. operated within a German, British and Netherlands consortium, Urenco Ltd., established in 1971, that concluded enrichment contracts on behalf of the three partners in the consortium with electricity suppliers. The enrichment processes did not take place in the Netherlands. The Council's Steering Committee on 2 May 1985 decided to institute legal action, in domestic courts of States and other appropriate bodies, against corporations or individuals who were violating the Council's 1974 Decree No. 1 for the Protection of the Natural Resources of Namibia. The Committee had also decided that those legal proceedings would commence in the Netherlands, against Urenco, a company which it said was known to process Namibian uranium in violation of the Decree. The Decree forbids any person or entity from searching for, prospecting for, exploring for, taking, extracting, mining, processing, refining, using, selling, exporting or distributing any natural resources, whether animal or mineral, situated or found to be situated within Namibia's territorial limits without the Council's consent and permission. Other countries against which such action might be taken are: Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Council+for+Namibia+sues+Netherlands+over+Namibia's+n atural...-a06272039 Extract from The Gulliver Rossing Uranium Ltd Dossier : Exploitation of Namibian uranium has had a "disastrous impact" on British foreign policy, 5 and the relationship between Britain and many Third World countries. (A visit to the mine paid by the country's prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, in early 1989, where she commented that the project made her "proud to be British" can only have deepened this sense of disillusionment and mistrust among Third World peoples). Moreover - and whether or not the mine's output has ever directly fed South Africa's nuclear plants - Rossing has certainly buttressed the apartheid state. [ http://www.sea-us.org.au/gulliver/rossing.html ] SEE ALSO: http://lockerbiecase.blogspot.com/2008/01/patrick-haseldine-on-lockerbie.html.